tumescent
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L341376 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /tuˈmɛsənt/ / /tjuˈmɛsənt/
adj
Etymology: From Latin tumēscēns (“swelling, bloating”).
- Swollen or distended with fluid, as of erectile tissue.
- Inflated or overblown.
“I think that in Gloria MacMillan uses this tumescent language for a comparatively modest purpose — to show how it was between men and women in the war — and the language inflates and perverts his meaning unconscionably.”